Marketing a classic

Nothing's sacred. Those of us who look for continuity in culture have always known that we could count on certain trademarks and products. Coca-Cola was there for the ages, as unchanging as the Catholic Church seemed prior to Vatican II. But Catholicism changed and so did Coca-Cola. Catholicism is scrambling halfway back and Coca-Cola came back all the way, but had to stamp "Classic" on the cans to clarify things.

If there is another trademark for the ages, it would have to be Levi's. The Dictionary of Eponyms: Names That Became Words lists Levi's near Listerine. It's as eponymic as Kleenex and Xerox, the "synonym for jeans, denims or dungarees," bearing copper rivets at strain points-"this innovation making [Levi's] especially valuable to miners, who often loaded their pockets with ore samples." And Levi's triumphed as the name synonymous with "tight-fitting, heavy blue denims."